translated by Ingrid Seliger, January 2014

 

Haermeyer from the historical farm "Harhof" in Recke

 

The first mention of the (farm) Harhof is to be found in a deed of donation of the nobleman Wicobold of Horstmar to the bishop of Osnabrück in 1189; it is mentioned as “Harhof” in the document, where also the place of Recke is first mentioned. It is one of the oldest farms of Recke. The Harhof, utmost north in Westphalia, was owned by Haermeyers. The owner of the Harhof called themselves Harmeyer, later Haermeyer. Heinrich Joseph Haermeyer was the last farmer of the Haerhof, and he sold this farm to the company Langemeyer of Mettingen in 1895.

I am connected with the Haermeyer family by marriage, and I heard many interesting stories of my Haermeyer relatives; so I decided to research the history of the family. A visit on the former Haerhof (today Verfarth) inspired me, to bring order into the available informations and to register all the people of the name Haermeyer, who are descendents of the Haerhof in Recke. But there are still many unknown details concerning the branches of the family, because there are so many datas.

I am grateful to all persons, who helped me, to collect all the datas.

In 1987/88 the author Hugo Georg Harhoff described the history of the Harhof Recke in a study about

“Die historischen Höfe auf den Fluren der westfälischen Haren mit dem Hof- und Familiennamen Harhoff”  (The Historical Farms on the Farmlands of Westphalian ‘Haren’ with the Name Harhoff).

In his story “Geschichte des Harhofs reicht weit zurück” (The History of the Harhof begins in Old Times)  the local historian and former parish priest Werner Heukamp published (in Nether German dialect) an interesting occurrence, which took place at the end of the 30years War in Recke.

During five decades the so called “Haermeyer-Colonat”, including all distributions of smaller farms, cottages and so on, was the origin of many descendants. In the 17^th/18^th century a considerable part of the Haermeyer children traded as so called “Tödden” with the nearby Netherlands.

The “Tödden” were traders, especially found in the area of Recke-Mettingen, who moved around to trade. In this connection I refer to the book of the local historian Hubert Rickelmann “Die Tüötten in ihrem Handel und Wandel und die Wolle- und Leinenerzeugung im Tecklenburger Land” (The “Tödden” as they Moved Around and Traded and the Production of Wool and Linen in the Area of Tecklenburg).

The part of Haermeyers, who emigrated overseas, is quite more difficult to research. The writing of the surname was partly altered in Haermeier, Harmeyer, Harmeier, Harmejer, Haarmeier, Haarmeyer.

Who is interested in my researches, can select the results in the data base.

A highlight of family history is for me, to reconstruct the way of life of individuel ascendents. In her research and detailed presentation “Anna Maria Catharina Haarmeyer – Lebensbild einer Pionierin” (Anna Maria Catharina Haarmeyer – Way of Life of a Pioneer) Marlene Sprute was very successful in this way. Catharina Haarmeyer, born january, 9^th, 1791 in Alfhausen, was the daughter of Herman Heinrich Haarmeyer of the Harhof Recke, who settled 1775 as tradesman (linen trade) in Alfhausen. The numerous descendents of the Haarmeyers of Alfhausen were researched by Bernd Schlarmann; I represent them here in detail.

I would like to come in contact and exchange with other Haermeyer researchers all over the world to find and to document further interesting traces of this family.